Digital Storytelling

Anytime I am asked to write about a topic, it is a somewhat painful process. I enjoy writing, but can labor over what it is I want to convey. When I taught 4th, 5th and 6th grades, I always tried to be sympathetic to kids who shared my indecisiveness. 

The digital storytelling experience was much the same. I deliberated over a few topics and selected one, my husband's fight to overcome cancer. I collected many pictures from my home computer and put them into a file. As I collected, the topic became very personal - too much so for our class audience (though it may be created as a holiday gift...). So my idea morphed into focusing on the benefits of the American Cancer Society. As that idea simmered in my brain, it changed, yet again, into the general idea of the benefits of volunteering. Perusing my pictures for volunteering, I came across many pictures of my husband and kids on our travels. Both of my boys are excellent travelers who enjoy seeing new places, trying new food and experiencing different cultures and lifestyles. My very close grade school friend and her sons are very different from mine in regards to travel and exposure to other cultures. Both families traveled to the Dominican Republic a few years ago and my friend was happy to stay on the all-inclusive resort, eat at the American-style restaurant while my boys, who were only eight and four at the time, and I ventured off the beaten path and explored the island on our own. 

That made me wonder where my spirit of adventure came from, as it was not part of my upbringing. Though my maternal grandmother had a spirit for adventure, but on more of a low key level, and people say I take after her.

Once I really thought about it, I realized that my lust for travel originated from my fourth grade social studies teacher and her teaching. After I had selected the topic, the writing of the script was pretty easy. Searching the web was also fairly easy. Timing pictures and cutting clips, as well as adding titles, music and narration took some trial and error and watching video tutorials, but the project was coming together. 

I started production at 6:30 am Saturday morning and by 2:00, the video was more and less complete. There were a few edits that I needed to make on Sunday, but when I tried to open it, only one picture appeared, and no music or narration. I played around and did all of the tech tricks I knew: quitting the application, shutting down and restarting. I brought my computer to a more tech savvy friend who was able to reopen an older version, prior to my adding music and narration. I was thrilled!

Then I brought my computer home to continue working, and it had reverted to only showing the one picture and not playing. I put in help desk requests to my school's tech department and heard back that it was an iMovie formatting issue, which was what your response indicated, and a tech person would help me Monday morning.

Sure enough, there were multiple iMovie versions on my computer and I was using the oldest version as it was the one that was in my dock, so the one I automatically used. The downside is that I will need to re-learn the program, as there are many more bells and whistles on the new version and its layout is different. I wish I had devoted this time on the newest version, but I wasn't savvy enough to think about different versions. 

Afterward, I was informed that in the future I should not use the district's tech department help desk for my own class problems. As this was the first time I had requested help for the class, this flabbergasted me. The district offered and financially supplemented this course and it was to learn things to use as a teacher in my classroom. Frustrating. Not sure how I will get any future issues addressed should they come up. 

Thankfully, I am happy with what I learned. The process was pretty cool and I enjoyed unearthing a bit of myself through the vehicle of digital storytelling. iMovie is not a tool I will use with my students, but I make slideshows for my students and parents and can now jazz them up a bit and I hope to devote time to compile my own family memories via this tool.

Twitter Chatter

Twitter chatting was stressful, 

http://www.cliparthut.com/emoji-kissy-face-clipart.html

fun and rewarding. Initially, it was nerve-wracking to just get into the chat, as I wasn’t sure if I was “in”. Once that was confirmed, I started reading the tweets and felt a bit like someone at a party where all the people were friends but I didn’t know a soul. People were personally commenting to one another, clearly showing they knew of/were connected with others on the chat. This went on for almost 5 minutes, which is long considering the chat was only scheduled for 30 minutes. I came to realize they were just greeting everyone and waiting to get more people on the chat before starting. 

It definitely felt like a community once the questions started coming. People were rapidly responding to the questions and to one another’s answers. It was fun to see people’s ideas on the topic move and change direction based on responses received. The topic was large motor activities and how much time is devoted to incorporating them into the school day. I came away with a few simple tips that would be easy to incorporate and could really help kids release some energy, which, in turn, should help them focus and be better able to process and learn. One idea was to have kids move to their seats or line up in some other way besides walking - hop, tiptoe, pretend to jump rope,...Simple, fun and effective large motor movements. 
One quote that stuck out to me was, "Moderate to high intensity movement feeds the brain with oxygen, waiter and glucose. That's brain food!" I love that I now have a great reason to dance along with my students to Go Noodle videos and to shake it as we listen to our Social Emotional Learning program's songs - we're not just wiggling or using time unproductively - we're feeding our brains! Here is an image someone shared on during the Twitter chat that reinforces the sentiment.

As the chat progressed, side bars started to pop up on my feed saying saying that someone ‘favorited’ my comment or responded to my question/comment. It gave the entire experience a feeling of intimacy with strangers. Weird, but it worked. 

I’m not sure how big chats generally are, but this one seemed small - maybe 12 participants, the moderator and the two experts who were posing the questions. It didn’t take long for me to “know” the person who was commenting (administrator, pre-k, private school,...) based on their bios, which helped me understand where they were coming from in their responses and also gave me a feeling that, if I were in a chat with them again, I could get in on the more ‘intimate’ conversation at the beginning of the chat, which I had felt excluded from less than 30 minutes before.

All-in-all, it was a fun experience that I hope to do again. I love working collaboratively and there isn’t always time to do that fully during the school day. This gives me an alternative way to collaborate, share and process information. I look forward to future Twitter chats!

Technology Integration Stages

When I initially read that I was going to need to classify myself on technology integration, I felt I would be pretty low on the technology totem pole. Now that I have a better understanding of the stages, I see that there are bits and pieces of my ideas behind technology use with kindergartners at a number of stages. I was happy to see I am beyond a stage one, and can’t think of a single teacher who is at stage one. District 90 has given teachers enough training and access to technology that everyone uses it on a daily basis. Upon a quick read of the stages, I initially pegged myself as a solid stage two teacher. I use a few tools with my kiddos, but prefer to have technology taught by the tech teacher, mainly because I am fearful that if (when?) something goes wrong, the lesson becomes a waste of time and sometimes causes such a disruption in the flow of learning that it is hard for students to rebound and time is too precious of a commodity to use frivolously when I see students for less than 2.5 hours a day (after specials).

Upon a closer read of the stages, though, I saw pieces of what I do, or at least what I strive to do, at other levels. From stage three I see that I am starting to take technology and think of ways to integrate it into lessons and I decide upon and use the same tech with all students - without giving them choice. 

5 Levels of Technology Integration Matrix

Also, as I am learning/getting comfortable with technology, I want more access to it, which is dipping my toe into stage four. Recently our tech coach left out Osmo, hardware that allows students to use tangrams, play hangman, and use spatial reasoning using the iPad along with real tools to manipulate. It was a novel connection using actual letters, shapes and paper alongside the iPad’s app. I was hooked and asked to play with it. Now I plan on introducing my students to it as soon as the tech person shows me a thinner sleeve than we typically use to protect it in the event of an accident. This tool could even become an option for students during choice time if all goes well and they can manipulate the iPad without fear of breaking it due to the thinner case.

That beings me into stage five. Once I begin to allow students some choice over what they do and which technology they use, I have entered this stage. When I initially brought Osmo home to play, my 12-year-old asked why my students couldn’t simply build with tangrams, instead of using it in conjunction with the iPad. After thinking for a moment, I was able to articulate that the iPad allowed them the opportunity to strengthen their visual-spatial correspondence beyond just using the shapes. They would have to transfer a 2-d image from the screen and manipulate discrete shapes in 3-d to match the picture. They would also be challenged to expand their vocabulary and challenge their growing phonemic awareness as they played the Visual Hangman in Osmo. I am also thinking beyond lesson integration and towards curriculum integration of technology. We teach in themes and instead of just thinking how can I find something for x unit, I am looking at things I am learning in this class and through Twitter for integration across units - for example math applications. 

Osmo's Website where you can learn a bit more about each activity.

While I still hover mainly between stages two and three, I am seeing an interest and desire to branch out and am becoming more technologically brave and interested in venturing into unknown tech areas.

There is a teacher I know who integrates a lot of technology into her day. She is on top of the newest trends and independently tries things out once she hears about something. While I admire the time, energy and effort it takes to learn and implement a new technology, at times I question whether some choices are instructionally or developmentally wise. At those times, I would say this person is at stage four, which can become the stage of excess. 

My long and winding road to teaching

It's crazy to think I was a high school student without a real direction, aside from working at the same grocery store chain as my parents and brother. I, too, had been working there since I was 15. No one in my family had ever gone to college, and they didn't understand the purpose of spending so much money for a college degree. "Why would you want to leave a job where you have benefits and are in the union?" my mom often asked. I wasn't sure, but I knew I loved learning and wanted to stay in school.

After attending community college, which was more in my budget than a four-year college, I earned my associate's degree and then headed off to Loyola University Chicago.

A four-year degree and six months in Italy, courtesy of Loyola! 

Why Loyola? Basically so I could continue working at the grocery store, as well as waitressing, working retail and being a teller at a bank. These jobs, along with scholarships and grants, allowed me to graduate with my BA, with a focus on communication, and spend a semester abroad in Rome, connecting with my culture.

A few years were spent working in public relations and then in creating and implementing training programs for a bank, but I had an itch that needed scratching. Despite never being pushed to read, study or learn from family, I loved being in the classroom, and had made some sweet connections with teachers throughout my education. I decided I wanted to teach, and hopefully transfer the love I had always had for learning to others.

DePaul University and the Glenview Public Schools had a wonderful program where a person would devote three years to work in Glenview and they would cover the expense of earning a Master's degree in Education. The interview process was intense! It was in the superintendent's office, with three heavy wooden tables set in a u formation and 12 people sitting around it with the seat at the head of the table open for me. They all introduces themselves - people in various roles in the district and DePaul professors. I am horrible with remembering names so I was a bit overwhelmed and wondered how I would ever be able to write a thank you note for the interview! The questions flew fast and I left with my head spinning, having no real idea if I was what they were looking for in a candidate.

Apparently, I was what they were looking for, and my teaching career began.

Where the teaching began...

The cool part of the program was that for the first year, I was in classrooms at almost every grade level from K-8. This allowed me to get a feel for which level appealed to me. Fifth grade was a good fit and I spent two years in my very own fifth grade classroom.

I have since been in many classrooms and have found that there is something fun, engaging and challenging at each grade level I've taught. Over the past twenty years I've worked with kindergarteners, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders in two countries and three districts and became Nationally Board Certified along the way. Kids, no matter their age or background, are amazing! I feel fortunate to get to work with them and help shape their experiences and thinking, as well as impact families through my communication home and during conferences.

The teaching profession has taken some lumps lately, but teachers need to remember the path that brought them to the classroom,  the experiences that shaped their decision to be a teacher and all of the lives they impact on a daily basis. Those are the reasons we become teachers - the best job in the world.

Thank you, DePaul, for bankrolling my Master's degree and allowing me to enter the field of education!

I currently teach kindergarten part-time so that I can be home by the time school gets out for my own two boys. I enjoy spending time with them - biking, playing games, reading together, camping and cheering on their athletic endeavors. When not being around the children in my class or my own kids, I enjoy spending time with my husband, reading books and being in book groups, traveling to new places, finding recipes and cooking and seeing plays.